One year on… what I’ve learnt so far

I can’t believe I’m celebrating the first anniversary of MacquillageWithLeilani, where does the time go?
It’s actually been over a year since I created my page but a year to the date from publication of my first ever post Get the look: Bold lip and eyeliner flick that featured my lob haircut and old office.

In the past 12 months I have learnt a lot and added a great deal of knowledge to what I already had, a couple of the topics I will share more in depth in a separate post as I feel that will be more relevant but I will touch on the main points for now:

Input and output

If you’re looking for a get rich quick project, blogging probably won’t be it unless you’re incredibly lucky and go viral. The more you put in to your blog, the more you get out of it. It’s hard keeping up your motivation but as long as you’ve got supportive people around you and the end goal is in your mindset then this should give you the drive to be consistent and make your blog work.

More is more

Your blog can never have too much exposure, when I first started I thought having a good SEO and social media presence was good enough, but it really isn’t you need to try and get your url out as much as you can. I’ve recently submitted my page to several blog directories and noticed my views going up, even if only slightly but they are going up.

Schedule and organisation

It is so important to keep a regular schedule so that you maintain a steady audience and also you are committed to your blog. It also allows you to plan ahead, I have a notebook especially for my blog and it is like a Bible to me.

Engage

One of my favourite things about blogging is being a part of the community. There are some really good groups on Facebook and I enjoy scrolling through my WordPress Reader to check out the latest posts in my relevant topics. I love engaging with new bloggers and sending them feedback, supportive messages and generally commenting. This is also part of the input output thing, the more you engage with others the more you will have come back to you.

Gratitude

Grace is a huge part, it’s vital to stay humble and grateful no matter how influential you are as a brand. Without your supporters and readers your blog is essentially nothing so it’s important to recognise them when you can which is why I started posting about my favourite bloggers every month and marking milestones with appreciation posts.

I’ve been incredibly lucky to have had the success that I’ve been shown so far, it’s definitely starting to snowball compared to this time last year when I first started and only really got 5 views on a post in a month! I am also surrounded by the best people both in person and virtually, my best friend and boyfriend are my day ones and I honestly don’t think I would have persevered with the blog as much as I have if it wasn’t for them, they help me so much with my faith and cast away any self doubts I may have. I really hope I will be in an even better position ringing in my second anniversary so that I can do a giveaway and acknowledge more of my amazing readers.

Thank you for making the first year a good one 💖

Let me know in the comments below how long you’ve been blogging for and what your highlight so far has been ⬇